Letter F, /f/

Letter F

Teaching The Letter F

In order that your child pronounces the letter F correctly, you need to teach them how to make the right sound. Tell them to press their top front teeth against their bottom lip and then let the air out as they say /f/.

Here are some letter F words that your child may already know:

Foot

Fun

Fat

Fit

Food

Feel

Teaching the letter F to preschoolers is not difficult to do, but you will need patience and be willing to teach your child every day. You can start by reading a lot to your child. It is easy to find letter F books online, in stores or in your local library. When choosing a letter F book, go for those that have nursery rhymes in them and lots of fun illustrations.

If your child’s name has an F in it then you can use this to teach them about the letter. Use plastic letters or cut-out letters to spell out their name, and show them where the letter F appears and why it is important. If your child does not have an F in it then you can use the names of other family members or people that your child knows. You can even use TV characters names.

There are a few names that start with the letter F and some of the easier ones that your toddler may know are:

Faye

Fern

Fred

Faith

Felix

Ferdy

There are more complex names with the letter F at the beginning and these include:

Fallon

Farrell

Fatima

Fergal

Frederick

Fenella

Make Teaching The Letter F Fun For You And Your Child

Just have fun teaching the letter F. Your toddler wants to have fun, and if you do everything that you can to make teaching the letter F fun your child will respond and want to learn more. It is always a good idea to use props that are fun when teaching kids, and letter F worksheets are ideal. Choose letter F worksheets for preschool that have funny illustrations and the words spelled clearly.

One of the most fun ways you can teach your child the letter F is through the use of letter F songs. This is a great way to learn, as you and your child memorize the words and sing together. Look for letter F videos as well as they are great fun too. A video of a letter F song is excellent and there is an example below.

Watching these letter F videos and singing the songs together is going to be a lot of fun for your child, and they will look forward to this a whole lot. Prepare yourself to be singing these letter F songs on a regular basis. If your child likes the song then they will want to sing it with you at every opportunity.

Letter F Activities For Preschool Kids That Can Be Great Fun

Animals That Start With The Letter F

Most kids like animals and you can create some fun games with letter F animals. It is always a good idea to start with the easy ones and most kids will know fox, fish, fly and frog. Once they have got the hang of these, you can introduce other animals starting with the letter F such as falcon, ferret, flamingo and finch.

There are a few animals that have the letter F in their name (not at the start). These will be more of a challenge, but find them anyway. Examples are chaffinch, cuttlefish and jellyfish. Use pictures of these animals with their names clearly shown. Explain where F appears and then ask your child to say the name of the animal.

Find Things That Start With The Letter F At Home

You will be surprised how many things that begin with F that you can find at home. It is easier than some of the other letters and in your kitchen you will have food, flour and maybe a fan. There may also be flowers in your home, a flag and a fairy. Outside you will have a fence and you might use a fire for those cold nights.

Your child will also pick up on words beginning with F that you and other family members speak. If they watch TV then there will be more. Some common examples would be friend, fat, far, for, four, five, find, fun, fool, feet, foot, feel and so on. Use real life examples of these words where possible or use pictures. Spell out the word so that your toddler understands that they all start with the letter F.

What about words that have F in them but don’t start with the letter? Well there are a few of these and they should not be ignored. There is coffee, buffet, beautiful, confuse, difficult, loft, myself, yourself, scarf and many more. Again be sure to spell these words and ensure your child knows where the letter F appears.

The more you practice looking for things with the letter F in them the more your child will appreciate the importance of the letter. You can play outside as well, when you are at the store or in the car and see road signs that have the letter F in them.

Introduce Your Child To Pictures Of The Letter F

Show your child pictures of the big letter F (capital letter F) and the small letter F (also known as lowercase letter F), so that they understand that they are written differently. When they start writing they will have to know which format of the letter F to use.

It is really easy to find images of the letter F online. You can also go to stores and look for these. It doesn’t matter where you get these images from. What is important is that you have these images available for your child to learn from. It will help them with their writing development later too.

Your Child Needs To Understand The Phonics Of The Letter F

The best way for your child to learn to read is to understand that the letters make different sounds or phonemes. As they learn each letter, and the individual sounds that they can make, they will be able to form these sounds into whole words. Below is more about the letter F sound.

English Alphabet LETTER F SOUNDS:

F /f/:

The 6th letter in the alphabet is F. The F letter sound is made when your upper front teeth slightly touch your bottom inside lip and push air though the mouth. Pay attention to how you form the word while making the /f/ sound. It is an unvoiced sound along with the letters “H” and “S”.

Remember to always say the letter name and sound when you teach your child the alphabet.

Examples:

FOOD: /f/ /oo/ /d/

FEET: /f/ /ee/ /t/

FAST: /f/ /a/ /s/ /t/

Exercises for /f/

Before you begin, print a piece of paper for the Letter F /f/

Also print a piece of paper with the following words for F:
FLY
FIT
FAN
FAST

FROG

Show your child the Letter on the index card or paper and repeat the letter sound several times: F

Listen carefully as your child repeats the sound after you

Ask your child if different words have the /f/ sound and wait to see the response. Always repeat the word using the letter sound to be sure your child knows the sound

Continue to repeat other short sound /f/ words such as FIG, LEAF, FIRST, FIT

Finalize the lesson by asking your child to tell you the sound of the letters

Use A Reading Program To Accelerate Your Child’s Reading Development

You may feel that it is beyond your abilities to teach your child how to read properly, but this is not the case. You are your child’s best teacher as they already love, trust and respect you. You just need some help with knowing what to do. A proven reading program can prepare you for everything that you need to do to teach your toddler to read.

There is no need to spend hundreds of dollars on such a reading program. Jim Yang’s Children Learning Reading is an excellent program at a very reasonable price. Jim taught all his 3 kids to read when they were just 2 years old and many parents have used his program to effectively teach their children to read. Find out more here.

Please go to the next section to learn the best way to teach the letter G to your child.